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Reviews

'The great strength of The Tallis Scholars' Ockeghem disc is in Peter Phillips's choice of two contrasting Masses … Phillips's approach to the work (as he himself describes it) is more like 'chamber music, gentle and undemonstrative'. Yet the sense of excitement here is none the less palpable in the judicious use of solo voices: listen to the kaleidoscopic changes in the Credo, and exhilarating final melismas. The singers' individual contributions are the touchstone of this splendid reading of Au travail suis, those who want to savour Ockeghem at his boldest really ought to start here. The Tallis's frequently astonishing technical resources have rarely if ever been used to better purpose' (Gramophone)

Introduction

The Missa Au travail suis by Johannes Ockeghem (c.1425–1497) was based on a secular model – a chanson either by Ockeghem himself or the unknown ‘Barbingant’. In fact Ockeghem only quoted the tenor from this three-part model (at that time the tenor was often held to be the ‘tune’), doing so infrequently but obviously: the first ten notes of it may be clearly heard at the beginning of each movement as a head-motif. After that references are hard to identify and the music settles into a pattern of gentle, undemonstrative chamber-music, the second Agnus Dei summing up the stillness of Ockeghem’s conception. As was customary in the fifteenth century, Ockeghem kept his four voices within a narrow compass (except in the extreme case of the second Agnus) and regularly scored down to duets and trios.

Other albums featuring this work

"The Flemish masters have been at the heart of our work from the beginning, just as they were at the heart of the whole Renaissance musical scene—and their Masses were the showcase in which they displayed their most sophisticated achievements. Thi ...» More